Front Page and News

Laws relating to antique firearms and bladed weapons are set to change in the UK this year. Dealers, auctioneers and collectors will be affected by both the offensive weapons bill and an amendment to the Policing and Crime Act 2017 which are set to become law in 2019.

Growth in the Modern and Impressionist art market outpaced that of post-war and contemporary art in 2018, according to the latest global auction data from Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Phillips.

In 2018 Tennants of Leyburn recorded a hammer turnover of £13.3m – an increase of roughly £1m from the previous year.

A 19th century masterpiece by William Powell Frith (1819- 1909) that serves as a who’s who of influential Victorians is on offer from a new St James’s gallery for £10m.

Among the most eagerly-contested lots in the Paul Reeves: An Eye For Design sale at Lyon & Turnbull was this set of Royal Worcester porcelain wall brackets, c.1865, allegorical of the four seasons.

Two fine examples of Meiji period cloisonné brought similar multi-estimate sums at regional auctions earlier this month.

Claire Brown, formerly director of Rupert Wace Ancient Art, has launched a new independent venture after 30 years in the art and antiques trade.

London gallery Richard Green has said it will defend a claim made in the High Court by a client who purchased two Old Masters for €5m at TEFAF Maastricht last year.

Despite economic concerns such as Brexit – and the imposition of the Artist’s Resale Right in 2014 – UK sales of modern and contemporary art grew last year at a faster rate than in other selling centres.

It’s not every day you see an auctioneer holding a 5ft 6in (1.67m) long sperm whale penis. Then again, it’s not every day that you see the sort of lots that are offered in Sworders’ Out of the Ordinary auction.

Christie’s says its London spring sales programme is the “strongest it has ever had” despite concerns of a no-deal Brexit.

Members of the trade federation Conseil National du Marché de l’Art (CNMA) have published an open letter to the French government calling for changes to stop France’s art market losing out to the UK after Brexit.

A group of illuminated manuscripts valued at £100,000 that were stolen from a London auction house in 2016 have been recovered in Italy.

The Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association (ABA) has joined forces with Shakespeare’s Globe as its charity partner for the next edition of its June flagship fair.

An oval oil portrait painted by the Chinese artist Spoilum (fl.1785-1805) depicting Captain George Delanoe, a 1st Lieutenant and Commander of HMS Repulse, drew fervent interest at Mellors & Kirk's latest sale in Nottingham.

A New York institution has consigned an intriguing Netherlandish devotional painting to Freeman’s sale in Philadelphia on February 27. The small oil on cradled oak panel is one of only a dozen pictures by a workshop known only by the moniker Master of the Embroidered Foliage.